Tottenham will listen to offers for Emmanuel Adebayor in the summer after Andre Villas-Boas placed Leandro Damiao and Portugal forward Eder at the top of his list of striker targets.

Villas-Boas is keen for the club hierarchy to tweak the squad, he hopes in preparation for a Champions League campaign, and the Portuguese would be willing to let Adebayor go as part of those plans.

Spurs have tried three times to sign Leandro from Internacional in Brazil and even though Villas-Boas played down the idea of making a fourth bid next summer, the 23-year-old remains firmly on the head coach’s radar. There is, however, interest in him from Italian clubs, notably Napoli, who are second in Serie A and strongly placed to qualify for the Champions League.

Another player the Spurs boss regards highly is Eder. The pair worked together when Villas-Boas was in charge of Academica during the 2009-10 season.

Now with Braga, the 25-year-old has five caps for Portugal and is a powerful, mobile centre-forward. Christian Benteke, the Aston Villa forward, is also being scouted.

Adebayor, 29 on Tuesday, joined Spurs on a £5million permanent deal only last summer after a successful loan spell from Manchester City the previous season. Yet the Togolese player is enduring a disappointing campaign at White Hart Lane.

In the first year of a four-year deal, Adebayor has scored only three times in 22 appearances for his club.

The start of his season was delayed by injury, before he was sent off in the north London derby last November, resulting in a three-match suspension. Adebayor’s late decision to play for Togo at the African Cup of Nations meant he was unavailable for four more club fixtures.

He is one of the top earners at Tottenham, collecting a package approaching £100,000 a week when incentives and bonuses are taken into account.

It is believed there is provision in the deal for that figure to rise after the first two years of the contract.

Standard Sport understands that Adebayor does not figure in the long-term strategy of Villas-Boas but the task of finding a suitable buyer could prove problematic.

When it became clear he would leave City, the former Arsenal striker had offers from Russia, Turkey and the United States but he preferred to remain in the Premier League. In the current economic climate, few clubs in strong leagues could afford the wages Adebayor would expect.

There is serious economic power in Russia, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and China, yet the standard of domestic football in those countries is well below that to which Adebayor has grown accustomed.

As his only fit senior forward, Villas-Boas needs better displays from Adebayor and will hope the chance to face Arsenal, who he left under acrimonious circumstances in 2009, on Sunday will galvanise the striker.